Contemplating About Home Poem by RIC BASTASA

the night has not befriended me

and so i walk alone down Jones Street
under faded lights of dawn

tall posts,

under the narra tree
two boys are sleeping holding on to their
bare hands
to keep themselves warm as the cold air
keeps on blowing

an old man counts his steps
using a cane
manages to take a farther walk towards
Fuente Osmena

jaywalks much to the aghast
of taxi drivers when the traffic lights
turn green

a newspaper vendor is repairing his bicycle
leaving his morning papers
frightened on the road

a white dog tied to a post
of this fruit stand keeps on barking at me

the woman that owns it shouts 'shoo! shoo! '
i am perhaps a stranger lost
to her view

the month of June is opening buds of the fire tree
inside the fenced grounds of a mental institution
of this city

as i contemplate of my early plane trip
towards home